Michelle Obama suffers no fools. Ping-pong bar review. Flyers season preview. | Morning Newsletter
In West Philly, some are so fed up they're abandoning the NFL and reclaiming their Sundays in the park. Montco has become a hotbed in the drug trade. Campbell's Soup finds a vintage recipe.
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Good morning. There's an election in Pennsylvania next month, and if you need to register or re-register to vote, you have until Tuesday. Here are the instructions. You're reading the Inquirer's Morning Newsletter. It's free to sign up to get it in your inbox every weekday. I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and feedback, so please email me, tweet me @JS_Parks, or reach our social team on Facebook.
— Jessica Parks
» READ MORE: Michelle Obama suffers no fools in Philly
Opening the Pennsylvania Conference for Women on Tuesday, former First Lady Michelle Obama doled out career advice and urged women to speak up when they sense someone is "an imposter. Like 'You're a fool.' "
She largely stayed away from politics but did express a desire for more turnover and opportunity in the political realm. "Young people don't know how to get into politics … and that's partly because some politicians hold on a little too long,"
To columnist Jenice Armstrong, seeing Obama back on stage felt like a time warp to a different era … one only 9 months in the past. "Definitely at my age and Barack's age, we're not going to stop," Obama promised. We can read more about it when her book comes out, around this time next year.
» READ MORE: Taking a SPiN through Philly’s ping-pong bar scene
Who goes to a ping-pong bar and orders a Negroni? Our bar columnist, Samantha Melamed. She needed a strong one, as a ball ricocheted off her head and she had a vague premonition that this would not be one of her favorite assignments.
Philly now has not one, but six ping-pong bars. Melamed reviewed the latest branch, on 15th Street, and sampled a signature cocktail called That Gin Jawn. The place grew on her once she learned that you don't have to go chasing after your own errant throws. In a fancy joint like this, they have ball boys to do the grunt work for you.
» READ MORE: Vigils and fundraisers for Vegas
Mayor Kenney, Gov. Wolf and several hundred Philadelphians gathered Tuesday evening to pay tribute to the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. The vigil began mere hours after the news that Shippensburg, Pa., wrestling coach Bill Wolfe had died of the injuries he sustained in the shooting.
On the ground in Las Vegas, reporter Aubrey Whelan meets a tattoo artist who came up with a memorial design and is donating all of the proceeds to charity. "The injured, they came to our city to have fun," said donor Lauren Stephens. "And they deserve our help."
What you need to know today
What is it like to be a first-generation college student at Penn? Many describe imposter syndrome and a feeling that they are much farther from home than their more privileged counterparts. Reporter Al Lubrano will be following a group of first-gen students through their freshman year at Penn.
Are Høidal, a prison warden from Norway, toured the Pennsylvania state prison in Chester. His takeaway: Our penal system is nuts and borderline cruel.
Public health campaigns for years have focused on behaviors to lower HIV rates. But rates remain high in some pockets that seem to defy explanation. For example, why are straight black women in Philly at high risk?
A heartbreaking story out of Bucks County last night, where a 2-year-old died in a car crash. Police say his dad was fleeing from a shoplift at Wal-Mart, and also fled after the crash, leaving his son behind.
A drug bust in Montgomery County uncovered enough fentanyl to kill half the county's residents, according to the D.A.'s office. Just last week, the White House named Montco as a High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
Pennsylvania legislators are back in session and back at work on their long, long overdue budget. The latest proposal would raise hotel taxes, potentially giving Philadelphia and Pittsburgh the highest hotel-tax rates in the nation.
At the corruption trial of N.J. Sen. Robert Menendez, former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified about an "unusual" request to intervene in an issue way below her pay grade.
» READ MORE: #OurPhilly
We want to see what our community looks like through your eyes. Show us the park that your family walks through every weekend with the dog, the block party in your neighborhood or the historic stretch you see every morning on your commute to work.
Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we'll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out to build those followers!
That’s Interesting
Our fearless Flyers reporters make some fearless predictions for the 2017-2018 season that opens tonight (late tonight, 10:30 p.m.) against the San Jose Sharks. We're loaded up with complete pre-season coverage.
Back in the 1990s, one of biggest hip-hop labels in the world was based out of Conshohocken. Now the guys behind Ruffhouse Records, Cypress Hill and The Fugees are being inducted into the Philly Music Walk of Fame.
What happens when you're so fed up with the NFL that you stop watching football altogether? You gain back some glorious Sunday afternoons for checkers in the park, reading to kids, and being more engaged at family dinners.
Even in a breast-obsessed world, more women are choosing to 'go flat' after having a mastectomy.
A company that won a lucrative Pa. medical marijuana license is now trying to sell it for $20 million. But the deal would come with a pretty big catch. Two catches, actually, since the federal government still outlaws the entire industry.
Opinions
Rebecca Rhynhart's experience and enthusiasm make her the superior choice for Philadelphia voters, our Editorial Board writes in endorsing the Democrat for city controller.
"When we slam the door on refugees, we legitimize fear of Muslims and nonwhites in America and foster hatred and resentment toward America abroad," writes professor Jennifer Dabbs Sciubba, warning that Trump's refugee cap will endanger the U.S.
What we’re reading
In what was probably a terrible idea, this writer spent six days hiking around the 64 miles of highway that surrounds Washington, D.C. [The Washingtonian]
Vanity Fair looks at hazing and fraternity culture at Penn State, which has one of the largest Greek systems of any university in the country.
Concert promoters mull what, if anything, they can do to prevent massacres like the one that just unfolded in Las Vegas. [Esquire]
A tale of two Rocky runs: Billy Penn explains why there are two Rocky Balboa-themed races in Philadelphia this fall (and why only one of them traces the boxer's training route).
Your Daily Dose of | Vintage
Deep in the vaults of Campbell's Soup Co. in Camden, employees came upon a bound ledger bearing the company's century-old recipe for beefsteak tomato soup, written in longhand. They're releasing the vintage version, using only Jersey tomatoes, exclusively to the Philadelphia area.